Henry Ross was born into slavery around 1840 in Albemarle County, Virginia. By 1844, he was living in Saline County, Missouri, where he belonged to planter George Kile. He formally married his wife Mary in 1862 in Saline County, although the couple had been living together as husband and wife for some time. Ross left Kile's plantation sometime during the war and briefly lived in Marshall, Missouri. He enlisted in the Union army on January 25, 1864, at the age of 24. Although the army initially rejected his enlistment, he ultimately mustered in as a private in Company D of the 67th USCT Infantry Regiment on February 23 at Benton Barracks in St. Louis. He served only briefly before falling ill during the summer of 1864. He died of scrofula, a form of tuberculosis, at the general hospital in New Orleans on July 30, 1864.

After his death, his widow Mary continued to live in Missouri. In 1887, she began receiving a pension of $8 a month, which was backdated to her husband's death in 1864. She received steady increases to her pension until her death sometime in late 1894 or early 1895, when her pension was dropped.